Recently, demands on a small-sized compact camera module are on the increase for use in various multimedia fields including notebook type personal computers, camera phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), smart phones and toys, and in image input equipment including monitoring cameras and information terminals for video tape recorders. Particularly, designs have become such elements that have a great influence on sales of mobile phones, whereby small-sized camera modules are greatly on demand.
The camera module is generally manufactured using an image sensor or a photo-electric conversion device of a CCD (Charge Coupled Apparatus) type or a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) type to converge light from an object to a photosensitive element and to form an image of the object.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a camera module according to prior art, from which the camera module according to prior art will be briefly described.
Referring to FIG. 1, a PCB (Printed Circuit Board, 10) is mounted with an image sensor (20), and a lens assembly (30) mounted with a plurality of lenses on a light irradiation path is positioned at an upper surface of the image sensor (20). Furthermore, a housing (40) is also mounted for supporting the lens assembly (30).
The lens assembly (30) in the conventional camera module is bonded to an upper periphery of the PCB (10) by an adhesive to allow light to be irradiated from the plurality of lenses to the image sensor (20). On the drawing, an adhesive (50)) is coated to a bottom surface of the lens assembly (30) or an upper surface of the PCB (10) to fix the lens assembly (30), where there occurs the following problems in a case the adhesive (50) of conventional epoxy is coated to the bottom surface of the lens assembly (30) or the upper surface of the PCB (10).
That is, a relatively even coated thickness must be applied, but if no even thickness is coated, a vertical tilting is generated from the bonded lens assembly (30) to ill affect a resolution, whereby the adjacent image sensor (20) on the PCB (10) is applied with a physical influence during curing of the coated epoxy to ill affect the resolution of the image sensor (20).
Another problem is that a direct contact between the lens assembly (30) and the PCB (10) may cause a physical damage to the lens assembly (30). Still another problem is that the conventional camera module is directly exposed to outside shock due to not being equipped with a structure or a means to reduce or eliminate the outside shock if the outside shock is applied. Still further problem is that a coated surface is too narrow to weaken an adhesive strength and a product defect occurs if epoxy is introduced into the image sensor.